GRAND CHUTE – Payton Henry’s baseball skills got him drafted in the sixth round by the Milwaukee Brewers in 2016.

But it’s the intangibles - one in particular - Henry brings to the field every day that draws rave reviews from Wisconsin Timber Rattlers manager Matt Erickson.

“His energy is unbelievable,” Erickson said of the 20-year-old catcher. “Regardless of what he’s doing and the success that he’s having at the plate and behind the dish, his overall makeup is wonderful for that position, to be honest with you. It’s the only position you have all the other guys looking at you, so when things aren’t going good you still have to create energy and some kind of positive body language."

“If you watch specifically just him throughout a baseball game, you’re excited to get out of your seat and go do something physical. More so than anybody we’ve ever had at the catching position, he bounces around in between innings, every ground ball he’s backing up first place, and then after the play is over it’s not a gingerly walk back to home plate, it’s a dead sprint back to home plate and in his crouch ready for the next pitch.”

Henry entered Saturday’s game batting .320 with three home runs and 16 RBI. Behind the plate, he has thrown out 34 percent attempted base stealers (14-of-41) and has not committed an error.

Henry, a two-time Gatorade state player of the year in high school, took time this week to talk to USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin about growing up in Utah, signing with the Brewers, and the painful hazards of being a catcher:

Q: Take me back to draft day. You had an interesting celebration?

A: I was watching on the internet, stuff like that, and found out I got drafted. I had a bunch of my family and friends and neighbors there. It was really cool to be there with them to start. I was just like super pumped. I couldn’t hold it in and I didn’t want to scream or anything and yell in front of anybody, so I just ran around the block and started screaming as loud as I can. People were coming out their doors to see what was going on. It was really fun.

Q: Being a Utah guy, how difficult was it for you to turn down BYU and sign the pro contract?

A: I always wanted to play pro ball and when I found out that I had the chance going into my senior year, when all of the scouts started coming, that is what I was shooting for. I signed with BYU. It’s a great school. I live 30 minutes away from there. It was going to be nice because my friends and family could all come see me play. I really liked everything going on there. But I didn’t have a bad option either way. That’s what I’m just grateful for. If I would have gone to BYU, it would have been great. But coming here has taught me a lot. I think either way would have been pretty good.

Q: Is it tough for a high school baseball player to get noticed in Utah?

A: Absolutely. Yeah. To me there’s a lot of talent that goes unnoticed out of Utah and I’m sure that’s the same as in other states as well. It was tough, but I did a lot of the travel ball so that made it a lot easier for me to be seen by the college scouts and pro scouts, because I was always playing in California and Arizona and Las Vegas. But, yeah, for a Utah-based kid sometimes it is really hard to be seen even by colleges.

Q: You were a three-sport athlete?

A: I was when I was younger, but I quit wrestling and playing football my freshman year of high school. My family is a big wrestling family, so I grew up wrestling. My grandpa is in the Hall of Fame for wrestling. I was born to be a wrestler, but it just didn’t happen that way.

Q: And your grandpa was a Golden Gloves boxer?

A: Yes, he was. We messed around quite a bit. It was more like wrestling than boxing. I’m always telling my grandpa, ‘Put the gloves on, let’s go.’ And he’s like, ‘I don’t want to embarrass you.’ It was fun to always mess around with him. He has an apartment in the downstairs of his home and I actually live there now. So I can talk to him and still mess around with him a little bit, so it’s really fun.

Q: How big of an influence was your dad on your athletic career?

A: He’s the reason all of this has happened. I’m a product of him. He means more to me than anything. He’s the reason I’m here and he’s the reason that I got here. From when I was a little kid to the end of high school and even now, he’s still keeping up with me on the phone and giving me tips and things he thinks I need to do when he’s watching me. The work never stops between me and him and that’s what I love about that.

Q: What’s the story about the neighbor who kept the baseballs you hit over the fence?

A: In the back of our (high school) baseball field, there’s a bunch of houses in left field. We had a lot of really good talent my junior year. I think we had like nine guys go to college or something like that, so some really good players. And we’d always hit home runs over there. This guy’s house would just get peppered with balls. Obviously, we weren’t doing it on purpose. We were just hitting and having a good time. He came over and kind of got mad at us one day and was like, ‘You guys need to quit this. You keep hitting my house. You almost hit me.’ We were like, ‘We’re sorry.’ So they actually put up an 80-foot net behind the house to keep balls from hitting his house. And like the first time we had batting practice with that net, me and like two other guys hit it over the net. It was kind of ironic. It kind of sucked for him that that happened. But he saved all the balls and eventually turned them in to the school and was like, ‘Here’s all the balls you guys lost over the years.’ We’re good now.

Q: What was life like for you growing up in Pleasant Grove?

A: It’s a nice, medium-sized quiet town. Everybody knows everybody kind of feel. Really good people there. Personally, I love living in Pleasant Grove and I go back there every offseason. I plan to live there or hopefully have a home there for the rest of my life. It’s just a great town. Great people. Great atmosphere. Lots of talented football, baseball, wrestlers. To me it’s the best town in the nation.

Q: Were you a skier?

A: I snowboarded until about eighth grade. I was alright at it, but I knew I was going to hurt myself at some point so I decided to shut it down. But my brother and sister and most of my family members all ski. It was fun to go up with them when I was a kid and hopefully when my career is over I can get back up there, if my knees have any more left in me, and get on a board again. I live in between two canyons and 20 minutes away from a ski resort, so I was always up in the mountains.

Q: What does it feel like to take a foul tip off the mask?

A: Off the mask, it’s not bad. Off the legs or anywhere without a padding it gets you pretty good. It stings for a while. It’s just one of those things like if you shut your hand in a car door. It’s going to feel better at some point. You just have to hope for that.

Q: There’s a video of you taking one in a place no one wants to get hit, and Yadier Molina had to have surgery recently after a similar incident. Is there a graceful way for a catcher to react after getting hit there?

A: I don’t think so. Stop, drop and roll. That’s all I can say there. That’s one of those ones that you hope never happens, but you know it’s going to happen at some point. It’s not fun at all.

Q: What’s worse, the pain or looking over in the dugout and seeing everyone laugh?

A: You know, that makes it better because it makes you kind of giggle a little bit, too. The umpire or the coach says something funny to you and you kind of get over the pain a little bit and it takes it away. It’s a little bit better when they start doing that, but initially, that’s the worst pain ever.

Q: If you had to write a scouting report on you, what would you say about your game?

A: I don’t even know. You’d have to ask Matty about that. … I try to have as much energy as I possibly can every game because, you know, one it helps me and two I feel like it’s going to help somebody else. That’s something I like to do. It just helps me get after it in the game.

Q: What are you hoping to accomplish this season?

A: Just continue to get better. That’s what minor leagues are for. Every day I think I’m coming out and doing the right things to prepare myself for the game and make myself a better player. That’s my biggest wish is to just better myself and hopefully my teammates can feed off that or I can feed off them. I think at the end of the day that’s all we want to do as baseball players is get better and get to the next level.